Azerbaijan , Baku, April 4 / Trend, A.Yusifzade /
Iran 's gasoline production capacity will reach 80 million liters per day by the end of current Iranian calendar year (ending March 21, 2011), Mehr News Agency reported quoting Iranian Minister of Petroleum Seyed Masoud Mirkazemi as saying.
According to Mirkazemi, currently Iran's daily gasoline production capacity stands at 54.5 million liters.
Iran 's gasoline production capacity will rise by 23-27 million liters a day this year, Mirkazemi added.
Iran 's gasoline consumption decreased by about 20 percent to less than 52 million liters per day, since the enforcement of the targeted-subsidy law (December 19, 2010), Mirkazemi stressed.
Iran has exported 1,000 tons of gasoline produced inside the country since January 2011, Mirkazemi noted.
Mirkazemi said Iran has completed the first phase of the Shazand oil refinery's expansion, boosting gasoline output at the site by 2 million liters a day in early February 2011.
"Currently some upgrading and boosting production capacity projects are being implemented in our oil refineries that will lead to increasing gasoline production capacity by 20 million liters a day up to July 2011", Mirkazemi said earlier.
According to Mirkazemi the gasoline produced by the Shazand oil refinery will be compatible with euro-5 specifications and gas oil with euro-4 specifications.
The second phase of the Shazand refinery's development will finish in June 2011 , when a gasoline production capacity will attain 8.7 million liters a day, Shana reported.
According to the Oil Ministry's website, the second phase of the plan that aims to increase gasoline production capacity by 10 million liters per day will come on stream this year rising gasoline production capacity of the oil refinery to 16 million liters per day.
Over the past years production and consumption pattern of the country's oil products have been changed from middle distillates to gasoline and other oil products with higher value added.
By completion of the development plan, Shazand oil refinery will be the first Iran's oil refinery changing 90 percent of its crude oil inputs to the high value products including liquefied gas, gasoline, gas oil, propylene and kerosene and just 8.4 percent of the crude oil will be converted to fuel oil and bitumen.
Boosting daily refining capacity from 170,000 barrels to 250,000 barrels, changing the blend of crude oil, reducing fuel oil production from 38,000 barrels a day to 15,000 barrels a day, producing oil products compatible with euro-4 and curbing environmental pollutions are among the other aims of the increasing production capacity and upgrading oil products quality plans.
By implementation of the both phases of development plan, daily liquefied gas production capacity will increase from 6,900 barrels to 22,500 barrels, Super gasoline production capacity from 5,875 barrels to 22,339 barrels, regular gasoline production capacity from 23,000 barrels to 77,000 barrels, kerosene production from 26,300 barrels to 37,400 barrels, gas oil production capacity from 47,100 barrels to 56,123 barrels, fuel oil from 37,720 barrels to 15,153 barrels and sulfur from 60 tons to 700 tons.
Iran is OPEC's second-largest oil producer.